Negosentro.com | Content that is unnoticed in the search engines is unread by the readers. For your brand to stand out among the crowd, a riveting content that will resonate with the customers is indeed a successful marketing strategy

For most B2B businesses, a successful content strategy is one that converts leads into customers. What’s the use of your content if it doesn’t transform viewers into buyers? In order to create an impactful brand image, your content must be enticing enough to rank higher in the search engines pages of Google. That results from content optimization. 

Engagement can be possible when you optimize content in such a way that it reaches your target audience. If you’re producing effective content which is user-friendly and accessible, but it fails to reach your target audience, it won’t contribute towards user-engagement. Around 91% of the marketers are using content marketing to generate traffic for their website and improve engagement

Optimizing content includes all the relevant information with appropriate keywords and backlinks so that it gets noticed by a large number of viewers. 

There are many ways through which you can boost engagement by optimizing your content. We have listed 5 ways below.

• Use Appealing Titles and Introduction 

Producing quality content is the key to success for every business. These days, every other business is using aggressive or pumped up approach for marketing and ads campaigns to boost engagement. You need to stand out in the crowd by doing something unique to attract visitors. 

You can persuade customers by optimizing content and creating fascinating titles. There are several ways through which you can make your titles look appealing and eye-catching. 

• Make questionable titles – the audience is always attracted towards how and what articles. For instance, ‘Does your skin break out often?’ All those people who have such a problem would definitely give this article a read
• Avoid making titles formal – you can use random words rather than highly contextual vocabulary

Once you have created an intriguing title, you need to start with a crisp ‘introduction’ that keeps the readers intact – don’t make it boring, otherwise, viewers will switch to another website. A study stated that attention spans of humans are about 8 seconds today. So it’s a tough job retaining their attention!

Engage with the visitors by telling them why your product/service is important or how it would benefit them. You can use several approaches — start by stating some facts and figure or light humor. Such things fascinate the viewers. If your content is optimized, it would also contribute towards boosting engagement. 

The key thing is to keep your titles ‘short’ – you need to be precise yet captivating. 

• Use Visual Content 

Visual content includes pictures, videos, infographics, podcasts, etc. to promote your content. These are mainstream sources to increase your brand popularity. If you want more subscribers to your podcasts, make sure they have the best possible titles and are based on relevant keywords. They must contain a visual appeal to break the blocks of print. Here’s more to learn about quality podcasting.

If a blog has tons of information, viewers may easily become bored and withdraw attention. You need to break the monotony of plain textual content to make it more interesting. 

Colorful images make the content look appealing and also grabs attention. Videos are a great way to boost engagement because they attract an audience 3 times more as compared to the text-based information.

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Further research suggests that 90% of the information which a human is able to retain is through visual content because a human brain processes visual content ‘60,000 times’ faster. 

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People are likely to prefer infographics when it comes to visual content – they are able to convey the message yet to increase engagement.  The main reason behind the success of visual content is because it is easy to understand and is retained longer in the memory so your brand can be remembered by a large audience due to some captivating ad campaign or social media content. 

Make sure to optimize content by including some pictures or videos in your blogs and websites because it would help in increasing engagement. It would also help increase rankings because now search engine is able to detect visual content.

• Focus on Interactive Content 

Marketing is a two-way process — if you focus on generating interactive content, such content helps the audience to directly interact with your brand. 

There are several ways through which you can interact with your audience. Live chats are conducted on social media platforms where you get to interact with your viewers, answer their questions, tell them about your product offerings and get instant feedback. 

For instance, Mac, a cosmetic brand interacts with customers through live chats. They have makeup artists available on specific hours of a day who are helping people globally select beauty products. 

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Online quizzes are another way to interact with your audience – mostly people respond to quizzes which helps businesses to get an idea about what customers want from your brand. Similarly, poles can be equally helpful to determine customer preferences. For instance, a restaurant can conduct a poll about whether ‘customers like dynamite chicken or prawns.’

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Playable ads are another form of interactive content – people get to actually test the service which you offer due to which the conversion rates are also higher.  

Such type of content would help your business analyze what are the effective and ineffective elements of your marketing campaign. It includes things which your viewers like; it serves as a great way to boost customer engagement.

• Award Engagement 

This approach includes giving rewards to people who engage with your business. There can be your regular customers who engage with your business by commenting, liking, and sharing your posts. This is a customer acquisition strategy that not only retains previous customers but also acquires potential customers.

You need to take this as your responsibility to reward them for the efforts they are putting. It doesn’t have to be anything big; small gestures can also make a difference. There are several ways through which you can appreciate your audience. 

• Give a thank you reply to their comments
• Discount vouchers
• Freebies
• Give shoutouts by posting their photos

The biggest example of reward engagement is Ali Express – an online shopping app which rewards its customers with discount coupons when a purchase is made. Coupon like ‘$2 off for every $10 purchase’ are offered by Ali Express to boost sales.  

You can also create loyalty cards for your customers when they make a purchase of specified amount. For instance, on shopping for $500 you can reward your customers with a loyalty card of 5% off on their next purchase order.  

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Rewarding audience is as essential as creating quality content. For this, you must interact with audience and choose the right platform. There are also ‘giveaways’ being offered by brands on social media platforms – thousands of people participate while only one person is rewarded with the goodies. It is a great way to increase engagement.

• Establish Brand Credibility 

You need to establish yourself in the eyes of your customers. Rather than using promotion techniques, you can focus on delivering your message. For this, you need to know your target audience well. 

Once you’re aware of what your audience wants, you can offer them information related to product features and offerings. Optimize content in such a way that it answers customer queries, gives opinions, and advise them. Through this, you would be able to develop a strong brand image that you truly care about your customers. This will ensure brand credibility.  

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According to a survey, 78% of the customers prefer to know a brand through articles rather than ads, which provides a brand with potential scope to convey their message. While 70% of the customers establish trust with the brand if they feel brands care about their customers. 

You can upload testimonials because when an audience sees happy clients, it automatically leaves a good impression. Apart from this, you can share feedback of your customers on your social media page. It would ensure that you’re a reliable brand. 

When customers trust your brand, it makes their purchase decisions easier as a result of which it would also increase engagement for your business. 

The Bottom Line

Every business wants to boost its engagement to improve target reach and drive sales. While there are different ways to increase engagement, optimizing content is one of the most effective ways to increase engagement. You need to identify the right content opportunities to drive active audience participation to prove that your brand is worth investing in.